-- Josmil Pinto and Alex Presley continue to hit like veterans, not newcomers. Presley had two more hits Wednesday to raise his average to .389 in his first four games with the Twins, while Pinto came off the bench and laced a single to left, lifting his major-league totals to 7-for-10. Not bad.

Presley said he's not surprised by his production; it's always a matter of playing time for him, he said. He'll certainly get a long look this September, as the Twins prepare for next season. I'll be interested to see how much playing time Clete Thomas, who filled in admirably once the Twins send Aaron Hicks to Triple-A in July, gets with Presley here. It's funny, Presley is considered a kinda-sorta young guy, and Thomas a journeyman, yet Thomas is only one year older.

Pinto, too, is going to get a lot of playing time, especially if Joe Mauer doesn't catch again this season, as the Twins consider whether he can make the jump from Double-A that was so difficult for Hicks. He'll split time with Chris Herrmann behind the plate (and maybe Ryan Doumit occasionally), but he looks like Mauer's eventual successor, at least in the Twins' eyes.

-- It was nice to see Ryan Pressly finally get into a game here. He's a native of suburban Dallas, and has had family and friends in the stands for all six games in the state this week, but hadn't gotten into a game. He finally did on Wednesday, and pitched very well, allowing only two hits and no runs while recording 11 outs. It was his fifth outing of the season that went more than 3 innings without a run; that ties him with Josh Collmenter of Arizona for the most this year.

-- La Velle E. Neal III takes over again once the Twins arrive home, so be sure to check his blog and on Twitter for all the latest Twins updates.

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Phil Miller covered three seasons of Twins baseball, but that was at a different ballpark for a different newspaper. Now Miller returns to the baseball beat after joining the Star Tribune as the Gopher football writer in 2010, and he won't miss the dingy dome for a minute. In addition to the Twins and Gophers, Miller covered the Utah Jazz and the NBA for six years at The Salt Lake Tribune.